Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
Histories of Nigerian kingdoms, empires, trade routes, and cultures before colonial rule, including Nok, Benin, Oyo, Sokoto, and Kanem-Bornu.
Northern Nigeria Between Empires, Drought, and Revolution, 1500–1804
From the sixteenth century onward, northern Nigeria stood at the centre of a vast West African system where authority moved along rivers, caravan roads,...
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, How a Yoruba Merchant Woman Rose to Power in Lagos and Abeokuta
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, who died in 1887, was one of the most powerful women in nineteenth century Yorubaland. Her life unfolded during an era...
The Nwékpé Masquerade of Arochukwu
Arochukwu’s Ikeji festival unfolds across several carefully ordered days, each devoted to a particular section of the community and expressed through movement, costume, sound,...
How Benin and Portugal Built an Early Trade Corridor on the Bight of Benin
When Portuguese ships began moving steadily along the West African coast in the fifteenth century, they entered a region shaped by long-standing commercial routes...
Ère Ìbejì, Sacred Twin Figures of the Yorùbá
Across south western Nigeria and neighbouring parts of Benin, twins occupy a powerful and intimate place in Yorùbá life. In some communities, twin births...
A Century in a Cylinder, An Igbo Vocal Ensemble Recorded at Umucuku in 1911
In April 1911, a brief musical performance was recorded in Umucuku, Nigeria. The archive description identifies it as an “Ibo vocal group with leader...
The Brazilian Barracoon in Badagry
Badagry is a historic coastal town in Lagos State, Nigeria, shaped by waterways, creeks, and lagoons that connect the Atlantic coast to inland routes...
How a Britsh Slave Captain Whipped a 15-Year-Old Nigerian Girl to Death in 1791
The merchant slave ship Recovery sailed from Bristol in 1791 toward the West African coast, bound for the ports of what is now Nigeria....
Dom Obá II d’Africa and the Politics of Presence in Imperial Brazil
Brazil’s late imperial capital was filled with contradiction. Rio de Janeiro displayed royal ceremony and modern ambition while remaining bound to slavery and racial...
Abuja History Before the Capital, The Indigenous Gbagyi People and Their Homeland
Abuja is widely known as Nigeria’s planned capital, a city designed to represent unity, balance, and national purpose. Yet this image tells only part...